#mindbomb

[joumanadraws]

Opening scene to Gallifrey, season 3: Mindbomb, and possibly my favourite pages to make so far!

Sketch dump:

[do-you-know-this-dw-story]

mindbomb (audio: 2006)

[thedukeofdormont]

Batman 139

[fractualized]

What is your thought on Mind Bomb by Zdarsky?

Trepidation? 😅

Like a year ago I was feeling positive, having enjoyed Zdarky's writing in The Knight and then that preview of the Zur storyline in "I Am A Gun." TMWSL was in early days, and it was fun to make connections and wonder about how it might all tie together.

But after that, Bruce getting zapped to an AU and Gotham War felt like speedruns without real emotional payoff. When Zdarsky brought in Joker again, it was with Darwin Halliday, who apparently created not only Joker himself but three of them, not only calling back to a Black Label story I was praying DC would leave behind, but bringing back three Jokers when we already had a separate title with two Jokers. The idea that different DC titles could tie together in some cool revelations became laughable once I realized the timeline issues were getting worse and worse, and Gotham War only affirmed that continuity is a fool's errand. When I read/hear writers assert that they definitely totally collaborated on an event that was rife with inconsistencies, I just feel stupid expecting a payoff.

Which is all to say I'm reserving judgment until I see how Mindbomb ends— but really I'm waiting to see how Joker: Year One goes. It's not that I think that the first two Mindbomb issues are bad. But they are… kind of rote? They hit many batjokes beats, to be sure, but I think I'm too comics-tired to really enjoy them. The only thing I've found really interesting is Joker's seemingly suicidal behavior, and I assume we're going to get more into his mindset in the J:YO storyline.

Where apparently we've got some version of three Jokers waiting. And I'm already expecting that it's not going to tie into Joker's mindset in TMWSL, which I guess is just as well after how that ended.

But maybe I'm wrong! I was wrong about Deadly Duo, after all. Maybe Zdarsky will get back to the storybuilding that pulled me in before. Maybe whatever his 3J take turns out to be won't make me want to tear my hair out. Only way to know is to wait and see.

Something I've been thinking about is how I would probably react differently to some comics if I read them five, ten years from now. With older comics, I'm jumping around the past, reading stories in isolation, already knowing what the future holds. Definitely more entertaining than trying to get a full picture of the present and seeing a mess. 😬

[evilelirium]

Bruce, pls dont cut your hair

[ksenazhdanova]

[angstandhappiness]

WILD

Here's the fascinating thing about this providing context to Gotham War and vice versa: Bruce says it's just him, that he's in control, but we see that he's an unreliable narrator, that Zur-En-Arrh has far more control than he realizes. There's a reason the opening comics for Gotham War took pains to show us Zur rattling at the cages of Bruce's mind and made sure to thread his commentary all through the event--he had way more influence than Bruce realized. To the point that, when Joker calls to Zur to come out and play, Zur can step easily into his body, that's how close to the surface he was. Which is now being paired with just about the only Joker story I've ever been vaguely interested in because ohhhhh yeah this is the perfect time for a story because this is everything the Joker has ever wanted from Batman--get rid of the riff raff that was distracting you, making you care about things outside of our little game! No more people you love to take you away from our little cat and mouse game! Now all that's left are Joker and "Batman", the most pure form of Batman in Joker's eyes, nobody else will have to matter now, now Batman will no longer hold himself back when it comes to really trying to obsess over and kill the Joker! All right, Zdarsky, I still don't like grimdark loner Batman or Joker-centric stories, both usually are some of my least favorite things, but you have my attention, show me just how rough "Mindbomb" is going to get, because you've clearly been tying this back to a dozen different things and I'll even check "The Knight" out of the library since you were bringing back characters from that series, too. (I think that's what gets me about Zdarsky's writing--for all that Gotham War ramped up and ended way too fast--but I strongly suspect that was editorial trying to make it an Event rather than what was supposed to be a story as part of the ongoings--he has tied in a LOT of other comics for context, which makes me feel like this wasn't just a sudden snap, but that Zdarsky is relying on us to be familiar with just how much shit the characters have been through and why they're at a breaking point now. And I want more "this comic will give context to this other comic" in DC, so I'm cautiously going to give this one a chance!)

[stopmyhearts]

I just finished Mindbomb and just what the fuck this is amazing I love it so much

[luckyshinyhunter]

Yay, he's back!

[wesavegotham]

I'm fully aware that it's not meant to be seen like this, but after the whole Zur fiasco I'm not sure if it's smart to go on a camping trip with your father, just you two, to the middle of nowhere and oh, please leave your gadgets and weapons at home, son.

[ocean-returns]

Pattern detection alert.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 60

Very soon after regenerating, the Second Doctor had pulled a large earring out of a trunk in the TARDIS, which he described as very fashionable once and remembered that at one point he used to wear it. (Novel: The Power of the Daleks)

Borusa once wrote a history book titled Rassilon the God. (Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible)

Like all other Time Lords upon initiation into the Academy, it has been confirmed that Susan once gazed into the Untempered Schism. (Audio: E is for...)

Many years after Nyssa left the Fifth Doctor to stay on Terminus, she had an adventure with the Fourth Doctor. This meant the Doctor had met Nyssa before Traken. (Novel: Asylum)

The First Doctor trained to be a ninja on Quinnis. (Novel: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)

The Ninth Doctor once got stranded when the TARDIS burped and jumped ahead 20 years in the future. From 20 years in the past, he communicated with a 12 year old girl named Sally Sparrow, knowing all about where to leave messages for her because she wrote about it in her homework, and that homework had been given to him by a spy in the future. Sally Sparrow successfully returned the TARDIS to the Doctor and grew up to be that very same spy who gave the Doctor the homework in the first place. (Short story: What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow) This story was later adapted into Blink.

Amendment 9 of the Fourth Constitutional Addendum is a Gallifreyan law also known as the "Stupidity Clause." K-9 brought it up while trying to think of a way to get Romana II found innocent during her trial. (Audio: Mindbomb)

On one of their first trips off Gallifrey, the First Doctor and Susan went to Garazone, where Susan bought him a model of the Nightjar after hearing stories about it. The Doctor put it up in the TARDIS. (Audio: Pursuit of the Nightjar)

This Nightjar model is still in the TARDIS by his Eleventh incarnation. (Audio: All of Time and Space)

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Doris once saved Susan from drowning. (Short story: The Gift)

Soul catching refers to the Gallifreyan rite in which a Time Lord transfers their mind to another's shortly before their death, after which their mind will join the Matrix. The Third Doctor used it on Waro once, and the Eighth Doctor once used it to communicate with the Beast. (Novel: The Devil Goblins from Neptune; The Taint)

The Thirteenth Doctor once identified Halogi-Kari as a Harbinger, a rare and powerful race. He was a Wolf of Fenric and had transported Ace to Iceworld on Svartos when she was young. (Novel: At Childhood's End)

The Fifth Doctor once went temporarily blind when he plugged himself into a defense net and got overwhelmed. (Audio: The Children of Seth)

The Eighth Doctor tried to warn the Seventh Doctor of the circumstances of his upcoming regeneration, but the Seventh Doctor decided that he would proceed as he would have anyway (as foreknowledge is dangerous to the Web of Time.) (Novel: The Eight Doctors) This means that the Seventh Doctor knew he was about to die and regenerate in the beginning of the TV Movie.

Near the end of his life, the Seventh Doctor grew depressed and lonely, and he knew he should go to Gallifrey and give himself to the Chief Hospitaller and his team of psycho-techs. Gallifrey had access to neurosurgery, therapy, and drugs, and the last resort was forced regeneration with the hope that the next body would not have the same melancholia. (Novel: The Eight Doctors)

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[humandisastersquad]

Gallifrey s03e04: Mindbomb

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

I choose to believe that Leela's deep concern that Romana was mistreated in prison in Mindbomb isn't just because of her (valid) mistrust of this whole situation, but because it's been like a month since Appropriation and Romana is clearly still sick

[evilelirium]

Spoilers i guess

So i said before i think the joker will die in mindbomb, but if they are referencing 3 jokers again then they can easily kill him

[nfcomics]

BATMAN NO.141 • cover art • David Finch [Jan 2024]

Zur-En-Arrh has done the unthinkable. And now, cut off from everything and everyone, Batman has to face off against his most devastating enemy in a brutal fight for the future as the specter of The Joker hangs over everything. The stunning conclusion to Mindbomb is here!

(W) Chip Zdarsky (A) Jorge Jimenez (CA) David Finch